The hardest character to develop...

[GoldenFalcon]

In any story, of any type, what do you believe to be the hardest character to develop?

Include any category...Character personality, Character background, Character habits, etcetera.

I believe that the silent type is hard to develop, mainly because one would have to draw an "antisocial" person who is really social inside. It's like a paradoxical figure.

[Rogue 9]

I believe that the silent type is hard to develop, mainly because one would have to draw an "antisocial" person who is really social inside. It's like a paradoxical figure.

*Raises hand* I'm that figure. Pleased to make your acquaintance.

I'd say honor/integrity. Its easy to set standards for yourself. Its infinitely harder to stick to your guns no matter what.

[ukamikazu]

I would have to say it would be the postmodern gothic romance anti-hero(ine) of the last 150 years to present because while working on the only tenets of the genre, thus their environment where the conflict is to take place, (horror/terror, history and homosexuality) you have to balance their neurosis in such a way as to make a believable text book case of schitzotypal personality disorder. It's very difficult to pull off well.

Their is a wonderful comparative Lit. textbook on the matter called "The Outsider" by Colin WIlson that explains this quite well. I highly recommend it.

[18-Till-I-Die]

I think the hardest, for me, would be a deaf character. They dont have diologue, nor do they imediately understand what others are saying. It leads to long periods of introspective stuff as they try to comunicate with those who dont know sign.

It's even harder if the character is a child (7 or . Then they have a much different view of the world and people then you or i. Some one a teen or adult would see as imediately a liar or 'bad' person they might believe, because they dont know enough about the world yet. You have to someone 'break' it to the character, and harshly, so that in the future it wont happen again, like a real child.

So those would be my two choices: a literally 'silent' character, and a child. Or, as in my story, a combination of teh two.

[18-Till-I-Die]

Um, i dont know how, but there is a where it shoudl be an 8 up there.

[salm]

i guess it´s very hard to develope a character that´s as cool as alex from a clockwork orange.

[Master of Ossus]

It's very hard to develop mentally handicapped people, simply because most readers are unfamiliar with forms of mental disabilities and so they require the writer to spell things out for them even as the character has no ability to describe what their condition is like. This tends to make views of such characters a detached third-person style, whereas it would be vastly superior in terms of impact if the character could be written in a much more immediate and engaged view.

[General Zod]

The hardest characters to develop? that's easy. the ones with only one goal. One dimensional characters wind up boring, stale and with no room for expansion.

[Anarchist Bunny]

On a mud I had a real asshole character that was quite respected amongst the immortals and oldbies. Having trouble recreating him in a new one now that the old one died out.

[Antares]

VOTE:
Schizophrenic character with at least 10 personalities ^^

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

In any story, of any type, what do you believe to be the hardest character to develop?

Include any category...Character personality, Character background, Character habits, etcetera.

I believe that the silent type is hard to develop, mainly because one would have to draw an "antisocial" person who is really social inside. It's like a paradoxical figure.

Errm, what is this doing in SLAM? It either belongs in Fanfics or OT. Or perhaps even Sci-Fi or Fantasy.

And the silent type you mention would probably be the easiest to develop. It's an amazingly common personality type, where you have an anti-social person who'd actually be much more talkative, if they could get over their own shyness or insecurity, or low self-esteem, or childhood trauma, etc, etc, etc. Though it may be a hard character to find a niche for in a story, unless you're writing about a loner and you don't need to have the character interacting with many other characters.

[Lancer]

In any story, of any type, what do you believe to be the hardest character to develop?

Include any category...Character personality, Character background, Character habits, etcetera.

I believe that the silent type is hard to develop, mainly because one would have to draw an "antisocial" person who is really social inside. It's like a paradoxical figure.

People trapped in (temporal) stasis fields throughout the duration of your story.

Also possibly the truely insane. How do you relate that to a normal person?

[Trytostaydead]

Honesty, sincerity, virtue.

[Defiant]

A good villain. Most villains are stupid, predictable and dull. Its almost impossible to develop a smart, cunning, but believable antagonist.

[Rogue 9]

A good villain. Most villains are stupid, predictable and dull. Its almost impossible to develop a smart, cunning, but believable antagonist.

No it isn't. Its just that most writers want to appeal to the lowest common denominator, thus the really seriously evil and obvious villains.

[NapoleonGH]

A good villain. Most villains are stupid, predictable and dull. Its almost impossible to develop a smart, cunning, but believable antagonist.

No it isn't. Its just that most writers want to appeal to the lowest common denominator, thus the really seriously evil and obvious villains.

a good villain isnt an actual villain at all. Say someone like Magneto in the X-men series is a perfect example, he is the antagonist in many cases but he isnt evil or actually villainous, he is a guy who generally wants to do right by his people, he just is misguided in how he wants to do it and due to his experiences with the Nazis cannot believe that humans will react to mutants in any way other than the way the nazis did to the jews. (I do believe that Stan Lee hit upon a great antagonist in Magneto and shows real literary ability with his character)